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Cote D’azur- France
Notes From a Native and a Tourist
Cote D’azur- France
Notes From a Native and a Tourist
© 2004 Bonita Productions Inc.
E-zine of Travel Adventures
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Cote D’azur- France
Notes From a Native and a Tourist
By Ron Kapon
Sally Jessy Raphael has spent 38 years as a broadcaster, more than twenty of them on television. Around the time she started on television Sally and her husband Karl discovered Nice France while on a trip to Paris and has become an American in Nice, living there half of the year. She has purchased three apartments in the Port area, one of which was my home for my four day visit to the Cote d'azur (Nice, Cannes, Monaco etc).I took the TGV fast train from Avignon to Nice in under three hours, meandering along the Mediterranean route. My first introduction to the Cote de Azur was comforting, my poor French was understood and English was spoken most everywhere and the trains ran on time. My entire trip was filled with sun and lovely temperatures for mid-March (60-75 degrees) in contrast to the snow and cold weather back in New York City.
The first thing one notices is how much the French love their dogs. They are on airplanes, trains, restaurants, everywhere; I only wish more people would use pooper scoopers as one is always looking down for the poop and that can be dangerous as I found out while falling over a sign. If you thought New York or Los Angeles drivers were nuts, meet the French “I park anywhere and I do mean anywhere.” and by the way why bother with traffic laws since no one seems to pay attention to them; only recently have the police begun ticketing speeders. My real complaint is with smoking; yes, it is legal, but I am allergic, and my nose, throat and lungs can not deal with it. They smoke in the no-smoking sections of restaurants right under the no-smoking signs so I was forced to eat outside just so I could clear my lungs; at least the weather cooperated.
I rediscovered Salad Nicoise( greens, tomatoes, black olives, tuna and hard boiled eggs) which is one of the areas most popular dishes, along with a new find, Socca, which is polenta with garbanzo beans The cooking is rich in vitamins and fiber with olive oil, mescaline and fish other staples, along with pesticide free fruits and vegetables. I was not a bread eater until I discovered the 5 Grain freshly baked loaf that I purchased every morning (and finished) along with my American coffee served black. The local bakery was only a few steps from where I was staying and I joined Sally, her husband Karl, and Brother Steve (who lives there full time) for coffee, the International Herald Tribune and people- watching. The shop also served as the local horse racing betting parlor. The local market was only another few steps and I picked up succulent pears, apples, oranges and bananas to add to my meal since the French are not big breakfast fans as are we American’s. For them a simple coffee and croissant was enough. There are dozens of restaurants along the old port area where we ate fresh seafood caught by the local fishermen. Even though Karl & Steve drove me to and from the train station and airport, I also took several local buses and of course I walked and walked through Nice.
Paris is a bit over an hour by plane (Nice is the second largest airport in France) or five hours by TGV fast train and Nice was a perfectly located home base for me. Turning right or east from Nice, on the way to Ventimiglia Italy, one reaches St. Jean-Cap-Ferrat and its magnificent villas, then Beaulieu-Sur-Mer and its harbor and seafood restaurants (I wondered if Georges de la Tour named his winery Beaulieu after the town), followed by Monaco/Monte Carlo and finally Menton, a spa town and the Lemon capitol of France with Belle Époque villas and the Jean Cocteau Museum.
After crossing the border ,with no one there to check passports or ID, we arrived at Ventimiglia and their huge Friday open air crafts market, all less than 40 miles from Nice. If you decide to turn left or west from Nice you come to Cap d’Antibes and then Antibes, the home of the Picasso Museum, followed by Juan-les-Pins and Cannes (a full description of which follows), then St- Tropez and finally the second largest city in France- Marseille.
The English first discovered the Riviera/Cote d’Azur in the 17th Century, followed by the Russian aristocracy, and finally in the early 20th Century by wealthy Americans. Palaces. Palatial hotels, gardens, parks, villas, marinas and promenades all evoke the spirit and luxury of pure pleasure. Nice is the capitol of the French Riviera and is nestled in the Alps Maritimes with a population of 400,000. From my apartment I faced the Mediterranean and if I had time I could have hopped on a ferry for the islands of Corsica and Sardinia or all the way to the African continent and Tunisia. The six mile long seafront Promenade des Anglais, with the beach on one side, starts at the airport.
It is only 5 miles from the center of the city, past the classic deluxe Negresco Hotel, and it’s Chantecler Restaurant, with dinner running $100 or $150 price fixed. The Le Meridien is another deluxe hotel a few blocks away and home to the city’s one casino. Walk into the Old City with its treasure trove of baroque art from the 17th & 18th Century and its cobblestone streets, quaint shops and the Cours Saleya, a fruit, vegetable and flower market during the day(except Wednesday when it converts to antique dealers) and restaurant row at night. Stop and rest at the Albert 1er Jardins Park and watch the children on the carousel (every French city seems to have one) or walk across the street to catch the Tourist Train and its 40 minute tour of the city, dropping you off at Castle Hill where you can catch the next train back at a cost of $8.
I opted to walk to the Chateau stairs (I used the elevator) up to the Castle Hill Park and a sweeping view of Nice. Just around the bend is the War memorial, a colossal edifice commemorating the 4,000 inhabitants of Nice who died during World War II. If I continued walking another 10 minutes I would have ended up back at the Port and my abode. Instead, I returned to Place Massena, the central point for the city with its fountains, promenade and skateboarders, Galeries Lafayette and an enclosed mall and shopping on one side and Old Nice on the other.
Sheltered by the Alps and protected by the Mediterranean, Nice has mild winters and moderate summers (50 to 80 degrees) and its over 4 million visitors enjoy the art and culture, including 19 museums (Matisse & Chagall), convention center, three theatres, opera house and symphony orchestra. The French Riviera Museum Pass will allow entry to 62 museums and historic sites and range from $10 to $30 for one, three or seven day passes. I was able to walk almost everywhere but bussed to the baths and amphitheatre at the Roman site of Cimiez, just outside of the city center. La Belle Époque examples include Le Negresco Hotel in Nice; Le Carlton in Cannes, L’Hotel de Paris in Monaco. In St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, in the late 19th century, Baroness Rothschild built her Italian Renaissance villa and gardens that are open today to the public. My local train to Cannes took only ½ hour and left me a few blocks from the twin domed Carlton Hotel, (one of 4 super luxury hotels) where I last stayed some 40 years ago (opened in 1912). Cannes is half-way between Monaco and Saint-Tropez ,15 miles from the Nice/Cote d’Azur International Airport. A good time not to visit Cannes, unless you are a movie or TV star, is May 14-25 when the film festival takes place and the 75,000 residents swell by an additional 120,000 people. The Festival International du Film began in 1937 and screenings take place at the Palais des Festivals et des Congres, built in 1982 on the central esplanade between the marina and the beach. The tourist board is located here as well as one of the three casinos.
I walked up the stairs where the red carpet welcomes the likes of Madonna, Leonardo de Caprio, and Michael Douglas. Outside are the many handprints of the famed actors and actresses that have appeared at the film festival. The convention center houses over 110 different conferences year round while 2 ½ million visitors pass through town yearly. One can parade down or up the Croisette called the” Champs Elysees of the Riviera” past shops that only the very rich can afford and peek into the elegant hotels. Cannes is a walking city, with the Rue d’Antibes the other major shopping street, only a few minutes from the railroad station and the Croisette. It figures that Beverly Hills is the twin city of Cannes.
The Forville market is open 6AM to 1PM (except on Wednesday when it becomes an antique market) and brings farmers to town to sell their fresh produce, cheese, especially Chevre and goat, fish, flowers and my favorite, ratatouille, a mixture of zucchini, eggplant, tomato, pepper, garlic, onions and herbs. Directly across the street is the two year old Cave de Forville, a wine shop, tasting bar and restaurant with 1,200 wines to buy and 15 wines by the glass. Walk up a steep hill to a former medieval castle of the Monks of Lerins which now serves as the Museum de la Castre. It is filled with antiquities from the Pacific, Americas and the Mediterranean; pre-Columbian ceramics and paintings of the 19th Century Riviera.
I even climbed to the top of the 12th Century tower for a breathtaking panoramic view of the city. I had just enough time to reach the boat docks opposite the Sofitel Hotel for the 15 minutes ride to L’lle Ste-Marguerite. Inside its Fort Royal is the Museum of the Sea and the royal prison that housed The Man in the Iron Mask. Another boat will take you to Saint-Honorat which is owned by monks who welcome you to visit their vineyards that produce Monk’s Grape Harvest. Cannes is home to four marinas, 2,500 moorings and one of the largest boat shows in the world.
I flew Air France’s 11PM flight from JFK and thanks to their generosity I was upgraded to Business class, had a wonderful meal, comfortable reclining seat and even slept a few hours. I had 1 ½ hour layover for my one hour flight to Lyon. Skip the taxi line, as they wanted $50 for the trip to the elegant Sofitel Bellecour Hotel in the city center. The bus, plus a taxi from the railroad station cost me $20 total.
The French Tourist office in New York had arranged a 2 ½ hour tour almost immediately upon my arrival where I learned that Lyon is the third largest city in France after Paris and Marseille and the 500,000 people live in a UNESCO World Heritage Site which was once the silk capitol of Europe. There is the Musee des Beaux Arts with many Rubens and Chagall’s, the Lyon National Opera House and the Lyon Orchestra Hall. There are 28 bridges that crisscross the city and Fourviere Hill where Lyon began 2,000 years ago, and its overlook view of the entire area. Old Lyon has the largest Renaissance quarter in France and its Gallo-Roman sites are second only to Rome, and hosts a summertime festival of concerts, theatre and dance in their open air theatre. Everything emanates from the bustling center of town,( a few blocks from my hotel ), known as Presquile, set on a peninsula of land between the Rhone & Saone Rivers with restaurants, clubs and families out for a stroll. I spend over an hour moving through the network of “traboules” or tiny passageways that thread their way across the courtyards of buildings. They are sort of inside fire escapes where people walk to their apartments and cut through streets.
Paul Bocuse is the ambassador of Lyon’s culinary traditions and he still has four authentic Bouchon Brasseries located here. The first stop on the culinary experience is Les Halles, the covered market where stalls pour forth culinary treasures.
Lyon acted as my headquarters for daily trips to Beaujolais and the northern Rhone (45 minutes) and in 1 ¼ hours my TGV fast train brought me to Avignon and my base for visiting southern Rhone and Chateauneuf-du-Pape. This walled city of 90,000 is also a UNESCO World Heritage site and is noted for its “bridge to nowhere” which was built between 1177 and 1185 and damaged by several floods of the Rhone River. It was never completely rebuilt. I stayed at the elegant Clarion Hotel Cloitre St. Louis at the entrance to the city walls. Over 150,000 visitors come here in mid-July for the oldest summer theatre festival in France, begun in 1947 with 50 plays spread out in 20 different places. Another ½ million crowd the city at the same time for the Festival “off” with the 500 shows commemorating street art.
In 1305 the Papacy moved to Avignon and between 1334 and 1362 they built the Palace of the Popes which housed seven Popes followed before they moved to Rome in 1378. Above the plaza are the gardens and a planted vineyard.There is a conference center next door and the Petit Palace across the plaza, which formerly was the Palace of the Archbishops and is now a museum. After my tour of the Palace I visited the Bouteillerie du Palais des Popes where 40 of the best wines of the Rhone are exhibited for tasting and purchasing. But you can also enter without taking the tour. On the Palace Square you will find a Tourist Train that operates April through October and takes you on a 30 minute tour of the city.
Information Central-
Trains- the TGV (Train Grande Vitesse) require reservations and an extra fee even though I had a complimentary France Rail Pass. Most conductors, information stations and entrance guards speak English. Remember to stamp your ticket in the machine on entering the track area. TGV diagrams show the car number and where to stand on the platform for your car.
Banks- Hours are 9AM-4:30PM weekdays and they close at lunchtime and most are closed on the weekend.
ATM- best exchange rates.
Go to www.oanda.com/convert/classic for daily rates.
Riviera Radio- Music, news, traffic & weather, all in English
Tipping- Restaurants include tax and a 15% service charge (service compris). Leave another 2 or 3%. Hotel personnel & taxi drivers may be tipped.
Shopping- Non European Union residents who stay in France less than 6 months can get a refund of the VAT (value added tax) if spending over 189 Euros at any one store (VAT is 19.6% of the purchase amount). Submit the form to customs when leaving the country.
Telephone- Public phones accept only phone cards. I bought a US International card that had a French toll-free number that brought me to the US & then I dialed at the local call rate. All French numbers have 10 digits starting with 0. If you are calling from the US to France omit the zero after the 011-33 international code & France country code).
Useful Websites- www.franceguide.com – www.avignon.com – www.cannes.fr
www.raileurope.com – www.nicetourism.com – www.guideriviera.com
www.airfrance.com – www.lyon-france.com - www.palais-des-papes.com
www.sofitel.com – www.choicehotelseurope.com
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